breaking news on our deaths are confirmed in an explosion that ripped through a fertilizer plant in the u.s. state of texas it's also left over one hundred injured. the blast that registered as a two point one magnitude seismic event leveled many buildings to the time of west with fires tearing through apartment complexes school and high rises this is the number of dead could climb as many people may be buried under rubble. i welcome you watching our deaths have been confirmed in an explosion ripped through a fertilizer plant in the u.s. state of texas that's left over one hundred people injured buildings in

a five block radius around the center of the blast had been reduced to rubble. well we can talk more about this to our correspondent sean thomas he's in the studio now sean we have been hearing police initially were saying that there were sort of confirmed fatalities didn't give a number we now know that i think nine in the agency service workers six of those firemen have been killed in this this just really underlines the magnitude of the disaster that we're seeing at the moment and we expect the fatality. level to rise don't we over the coming hours indeed and those are going to be the first to fatalities that we do hear about because they are the ones who are connected with radios that are the ones that law enforcement and emergency managers know where they are while dealing with its emergency so when the explosion went off and they didn't hear from them and then they were able to go in and try and recover them they are the first people we're going to hear about as fatalities what we don't know about yet as we've heard about the managers going door to door home to home

trying to pull people out some people might still be trapped we're not going to really know the full extent of this tragedy and till the smoke clears literally and they can go in there in a safe way and look for intentionally the disaster if you just look at the figures they say that a police officer is saying or a fire spokesperson is saying that seventy buildings have collapsed as a result of this one of the buildings was an old person's home where it's believed over one hundred people in view of an idea it's in a downtown area heavily populated for this small town and he went on to say that as you said they were going door to door to try and pull people out of the rubble so. i'm sure that this situation and the full scale of the disaster will become become evident. as we get daybreak as we can actually get in there and actually really look at the full extent of the tragedy there's also another issue here at the moment we know about. the damage that the blast coal was but there's a real issue about toxins that are being released by this plant at the moment and

concerned about a toxic cloud. being released from the plant can you tell us more about that and the. you told me for an ammonia being released how dangerous is this potentially fatal if not treated as any gases that can take over your respiratory system in fact we've actually heard that there have been cases of and hydrous ammonia inhalation that people have been treated now if treated properly and if caught quickly. in time they will of the people will be expected to fully recover but what they're worried about is gas clouds that they can't get people from people as fixating from this toxic chemical so it is a very very a big concern for emergency medicine the situation on the ground at the moment is that they are looking very closely at this and considering evacuating more people only hope that people are being evacuated from the town of west that is only a very small town in itself isn't it two thousand seven hundred people but so that

is to consider at the moment but let's just for a moment reflect on that major blast we can now hear more i witness accounts. ok i think. he's i hear ok so that you can hear the panic there from the person who is taking the footage we have spoken so you are eyewitnesses as well talking of the scene of complete devastation but again it's very difficult for them to see but only take it all in but visually see what's happening because it's still dark there i mean this happened at seven thirty pm local time so unfortunately emergency services many of them from many different counties are coordinating their response at the moment and that will continue through the night let's just cross to the n.h. piano our correspondent in the united states yanni we've been talking there about the rescue response it's been going on now for a number of hours what more can you tell us is the pay is that everything is in

hand and it's a question of going door to door to these buildings that have been flattened to try and help people and also continue to treat those who've been taken to hospital. well that's right andrew actually more than one hundred people we hear about more than one hundred seventy people being treated at the hospital at the moment well actually there's a very interesting piece of information here i think would be of interest the fertilizer plant that exploded in west texas on wednesday night was fined by the fire mental protection agency in two thousand and six for failing to have a risk management plan that met federal standards according to the e.p.a. to the agency a risk management plan is designed to ensure chemical accidents don't happen by having safeguards in place to prevent them all according to construction permits submitted in november a fact here at this company west fertilizer valves to meet all standards expected

for and i address ammonia storage tanks at one of those tanks as we know blew up this wednesday night officials are reluctant to give any specific information as to what caused the explosion we heard local police say they don't know whether it was a chemical reaction or criminal activity but that kind of caution could be understandable because only after an investigation there will be. there will be they will be able to say anything for sure because of the intense coverage of this massive explosion there's lots of room for speculation and misinformation so what they are it is a very cautious with numbers especially the numbers of those who were killed six firefighters two medical professionals and one law enforcement officer reported dead there they were thought to be among the first responders to the explosion there was a small of fire at the first and then the big blast came later it ripped through

a residential area right next to the plane and the blast was horrific was it again as you said but also there's the issue of toxins not being released into the atmosphere where the officials saying about that. one good news that we heard from the authorities there is that the fire is contained you know presumably there is no danger of that now there are a kank full of chemicals exploding but the bad news is the wind it's very strong in the area as we're hearing it spreads the toxic chemicals very quickly from what we heard from the police there that toxic fumes still hamper rescue efforts in the area i mean you know those will be hospitalized suffered from the money and her life as we were told by medical professionals here's what experts say about the spread of those toxic chemicals. is we know is extremely combustible so she's been used in bombs and so it's manufacture is extremely delicate and can easily if handled wrong or if handled and safely can lead to explosions so we have

to assume at this point that it is such a chemical explosion that's happened there at the plant when you're handling chemicals like this there is a possibility that there can be chemical contamination that could that would need to be cleaned up in the aftermath of the explosion so they'll undoubtedly be extensive monitoring of the areas around the plant in order to make sure that whatever chemicals have been spread around can be cleaned up to reduce future toxicity to the residents with the kinds of winds that blow in such big intense fires there will be airborne distribution. so there's nothing that can be done while the event is happening what will be done is is assessment and cleanup in the aftermath currently people are being evacuated because of the dangers to for further explosions for fire to spread and also for spread around of some of the chemicals from the plant however those will almost certainly be deposited close to

the plant and it will be possible to get in there make assessments and do cleanup of the area in the future so those are the primary dangers. ok again his behavior there that it's not just the initial response to this disaster it's also the cleanup isn't it could could occur for many weeks many months after. after the emergency services have done what they can to contain the situation but it's a problem that could that could certainly linger on moore thank you very much for being with us gani sure we'll talk to you again today well let's cross now to linda who's in texas for us but i'm on what's the latest you're on the ground there we understand that police are continuing that painstaking process of going from door to door literally every building to try and pull people out from the rubble what's what can you see from where you are. we are in the middle of. the city here in west texas downtown. there are police from

jurisdictions throughout texas and patrolling the streets here making sure that people do not go into the dangerous area we're in the middle the downtown area quite a distance away from the plan itself but throughout. the streets here in the downtown area there are windows which have been blown out which really points to how powerful the blast was quite a distance away there is damage. quite a distance away right now it is. around four in the morning here and austin texas so there are some business owners who are just starting to arrive to see that their businesses have been damaged and are starting to clean up after we see some people sweeping up glad there's boarding up in the windows and again just the chatter. talking about what a devastating event this has been for this tiny little town of twenty six hundred

people a lot of people here know each other a lot of people here wary that their friends were some of those first responders to who purchased on it because at the moment many people are still unaccounted for there are still people who are quite worried about where their loved ones might be on this day and certainly i mean we know that this time itself might be reasonably remote but this is a plant was actually very close to residential areas within. absolutely there were there's several residences located. very near the plant including a senior residential building and apartment complex which has reportedly been completely demolished we talked to some witnesses who were there on the scene and said that houses were completely crushed all that it was it was a pile. of dry wall garbage and suck up here needs but nothing that wreckage

that could be recognizable as somebody is home just complete devastation in the immediate vicinity of. the plant at least one city block was just decimated and from some reports we're getting reports of damage several blocks away from the plant and as i mentioned we are being kept at a distance for our own safety and yet there's still quite a bit of damage here in the downtown shopping area of this small tiny town well i mean let's just for a minute let's just listen to the texas department of public safety he gave their assessment of the tragedy. i can tell you i was there i walked through the blast area i searched some houses earlier tonight massive just like iraq just like the murray building in oklahoma city same town of honduras exploded so you can imagine what kind of damage we're looking out there. i know there was at least seventy five

to fifty fifty to seventy five houses damaged his apartment complex that has about fifty units in it that was completely. just skeleton standing there's a nursing home there that one hundred thirty three people in the nursing home we've got them evacuated i don't know what their injuries are are there right now but all injuries have been removed from the scene and talking to local hospitals in the waco area we had numerous agencies helping us all the way from the dallas fort worth area mclennan county lines don't feel basi and almost around areas that we've had a great turnout. to come out to help us get through this tragedy that we've had in a small for me. so that was a spokesperson for the texas department of public safety really giving his account of the problems now that face that community and also the problems of trying to contain the fire but also rescue the many many people that have been left under rubble and i'm on we're talking at the moment on who's naughty correspondent on the

ground in the town of west from i'm not sure what your impression at the moment there's been a confirmed number of deaths nine as we believe but speaking to other journalists there and presumably you have spoken to militancy services what is the fear what what realistically are people expecting this death toll to reach. described it as a nuclear blast and he lamented the fact that one town woke up in the morning that dozens of their neighbors who they want to work with and live next to would not be here waking up with them the next day. when we first arrived we talked to the state trooper at the media checkpoint and he mentioned the fact that. when we arrived several hours ago it was still too dangerous to reach

the rubble and we got an update that first responders are now going through the rubble but. presume that there were several people there and as we talked about earlier i mean a very heavily populated area. in regards to residential. residential houses and apartment. people here know each other so they know. their neighbors their friends. they could possibly be unfortunately under the rubble. what's your impression is the response of the nation ceases to pay is it a pay it is being in hand and very well coordinated involving a huge number of agencies from from a large number of counties. the response was overwhelming once we arrived on the scene what we had to drive a couple of hours from austin the first responders which had set up a tree local community center at a baseball field were able to get all of the injured to local hospitals and

if you've seen any of the footage from earlier this evening there were. hundreds of people there being treated for injuries there have been. all over texas who have. been even in excess of some ambulances that actually. without patients. a lot of extra water and food and supplies for people who had to evacuate from their homes right now and then to where in the middle of downtown things are just getting started but mostly both found in the fact that people live in even quite a quite a different way from the plant itself are being told to stay away because the days of the possible dangers of the chemical vapors coming from that fire that is actually one question to put a spokesperson i had our facility we are one of two facilities receiving the the patients from the from the blast right now we have seen sixty five patients one of

which is critical the majority of the ones we've seen have had a variety of broken bones head injuries and a lot of them have had an hydra samone jane hello nation from the from the fertilizer plant we have had a massive response from our medical our doctors our nurses our respiratory therapist and they have been able to treat in release most of the ones who have who have had the the exposure to the to the ammonia we have had twelve admissions of the sixty five patients we have seen prepare. every day for disasters i will say i have been here for thirty years i have never seen anything to the to this magnitude but on time very trying to pull that that we planned for this day

and again we do this on a routine basis we have automated call system where where when we see a disaster and automatically rings the phones of our staff and our staff who responded in a matter of minutes we trained for chemical spills we train train for you know. automobile we train for a variety of different things. which is probably the biggest thing we look for in central texas but yes we train for chemical chemical disasters we remain on on full. waiting for anything that might come through. the nursing home. pretty much destroyed we have done some of the. transferred to other nursing homes in our

area. could not go back. there is planned. for the rest of the evening and on into tomorrow. the voice of the spokesperson from a local hospital near the town of west where this explosion took place that i'm on . voice and his description of what's happened over the last i suppose in some respects because. he says do you have. do you have to say anything from the training to trying. because we do have. that kind of twenty six hundred people. being taken to. twenty minute drive away. it took them more than an hour to get here. that there was an emergency plan in

place. given the fact that your client was here very well aware that. i had him on thank you very much that's. the scene in the town of west because i quick break i'll be back with more news. world. series technology innovation called the least developed means from around russia we've dumped a huge earth covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for langley you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture.

more news today violence has once again flared up. in these are the images world world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations are all today. hello welcome back you're watching r.t. a reminder of our breaking news this hour deaths are confirmed in a blast that ripped through a fertilizer plant in the u.s. state of texas also leaving over one hundred people injured the blast took place at eight pm local time officials are now saying that the fire has been contained local

authorities confirmed deaths at the fertilizer plant but the number of casualties is still unclear a number of firefighters are missing local residents have been advised to evacuate from the area in the town of west that is just north of a u.s. geological survey says that glass you just saw registered a magnitude of two point one as a seismic event firefighters ambulances and helicopter support groups are still at the scene eyewitnesses say the fire took hold of apartment complexes schools and houses some of which collapsed as this material teams have also been dispatched to tackle the aftermath of the explosion local media report the u.s. chemical safety board are also headed to the site of the explosion to investigate all local hospitals a coordinating efforts to deal with the inflow of patients many of which are believed to be a critical condition because of the blast is not yet known how the explosion took place on the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the wake a siege between authorities and

a militant religious group more than eighty people died during the fifty day standoff. well to talk more about what has happened sean thomas to join the studio last year ashley smith still we mentioned there talked about the siege. how significant is that we reading too much into this will this be part of the inquiry and we will certainly be part of the inquiry but we may be giving more attention to that but let's look at the timing of this you have the waco siege which ended on april nineteenth seventy four people killed in a very significant very big fire reminiscent of the images that we're seeing seeing that was the culmination of a fifty day standoff between a.t.f. agents and the branch davidian david koresh he set the complex on fire killing himself and these seventy three others to that was twenty years ago almost to the day one day shy of that then two years later so eighteen years ago in oklahoma city bombing the federal building the murrayfield you're building there also happened on

this date and kind of eerie as well the sixty sixth anniversary exactly to the day of the texas city texas fire and explosion which killed twelve hundred people that was at a month santo chemical plant that was in a town very near to houston so very significant timing and very eerie as well when it comes to the day whether this has any significance into the investigation who knows but certainly interesting to point out to say the least and in terms of the community you know texas very well this is a very small town isn't it but collectively what the community be feeling we have seen sainz of people rallying strikes their way to try and help and then we're told by an agency officials actually please don't you know helping but what do you think will be the failing that well that's the spirit of a small town in fact we heard from the people that we've spoken to tonight about how these are their friends their colleagues the people they know they've grown up

with it's a town of less than three thousand people and a very strong spirit and this is when things like this happen these people rally together so that they can help each other get through this and not just in this town but around the country as well if you saw what happened in boston the entire country. we rallied for support around that big city same thing happens on a smaller town level where people want to help they want to give blood they want to give what they have to help those who are suffering in this moment i mean we're going to see a lot of that outpouring of support candlelight vigils people giving blood doing what they can in whatever small way that they can to bring this community back together and fight through this tragedy and you've lived in the states we said for many years and familiar with this area but you you would also be familiar with the response from the white house explain again what what is the proceeds you think what we will see over the coming hours coming days we've already even heard from the white house a white house spokesman has said that they are monitoring the situation very carefully but right now they're going to defer to the local law enforcement the people on the ground they're not going to get involved because quite frankly it's

not their place to get involved right now once that investigation has taken place once they have a firm grasp of what's happening then there will probably come a statement of support for the community. president obama in the past has gone to these situations in fact he's even used reserved caution sometimes when there have been times when he shouldn't go to a place he's asked the local managers on the ground would it be a hindrance if i came to visit and so you will see the white house trying to see gauge the situation to see where they can help or where their presence would actually hurt ok just to give people an update at the moment still unconfirmed fatalities but that said just a few moments ago at least within the last non emergency services officials were killed including firefighters and policemen. and unfortunately police are going to work to do and i tried to call bodies from buildings and we do expect the death toll to rise. well the social media sphere is now bursting with comments on the tragedy eyewitnesses have been posting some of that footage and snapshots of the

blast saying these are some examples these images are from the twitter which of course is a lot with discussion of the disaster the massive smoke cloud from the blast was pictured by several people the enormous pollution and images of the mayhem in the area surrounding the plant were also being made available collapsed and burning buildings as well as survivors as their. but up next it is the cause report and more updates from the u.s. on the blast at a fertilizer plant in about thirty minutes time. i reckon cardiologist dr omar our claims that the war in iraq destroyed iraq's environment even worse than dropping the bomb on hiroshima did dr e.c.

puts to data that the number of breast cancer cases has grown in the country from fifteen to thirty times cases of congenital heart disease have become fifteen times more frequent and cases of leukemia have increased thirty fold the doctor puts the blame on the weapons used in the one thousand nine hundred one and two thousand and three invasions of iraq it which nato forces used white phosphorus depleted uranium rounds and other toxic gases and poisonous substances human rights watch and the world health organization have measured radiation levels in iraq and consider many places in iraq even some very far from the fighting to be contaminated naturally radiation is not racist and foreign soldiers in iraq are not immune usa today even published research results that found that depleted uranium was indeed in the lungs and other organs of navy vets who filed for health compensation claims yeah you know saddam hussein seen.